Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- On the cover of Le Parisien’s
magazine today, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg poses before
the French flag in a sailor’s jersey, wearing a Michel Herbelin
watch and holding a Moulinex blender -- all made in France.

Seeking to preserve and create work in France in the face
of a 13-year high unemployment rate of 10 percent, Montebourg
suggests French consumers forget cheaper imports and a greater
product choice if it means more of their countrymen keep jobs.

“My priority is ‘Made in France,’” he said this month.
“There’s a choice that’s more important than any other and that
is to preserve France’s industrial base.”

The minister is among members of President Francois
Hollande’s government struggling to prevent the exit of more
people from the workforce as Europe’s second-largest economy
slumps, shrinking demand and forcing consumers to tighten their
purse strings. Montebourg’s pronouncements mark a long tradition
of treating the French as citizens first and consumers later.

“There is a patriot in all of us,” Montebourg said in Le
Parisien today. “When you’re a consumer, you’re also an
employee, a parent, a neighbour, a friend directly or indirectly
touched by unemployment and company closures.”

The heightened mercantilist leanings of the government are
drawing the ire of consumer groups.

“We have a government today that wants immediate results
on employment and so is quick to sacrifice the rights of
consumers,” said Edouard Barreiro, a representative for
consumer group UFC-Que Choisir in Paris.

Car Repairs

Take the case of auto repairs in France, for example. The
French competition regulator reported Oct. 8 that the cost of
fixing and maintaining cars rose 28 percent, after inflation,
from 2000 to 2011 in France. In neighboring Germany, consumers
paid just 10 percent more than in 1998, it noted.

The regulator recommended lawmakers take steps to open the
market, saying carmakers have too strong a grip on it. French
carmakers PSA Peugeot Citroen SA and Renault SA get higher
profit margins from repairs and maintenance than from selling
cars, the regulator said.

Montebourg, visiting auto factories in northern France that
day, shrugged off questions about the higher prices for repairs
for French vehicle owners, saying giving carmakers the ability
to preserve the industrial base was more important. Peugeot is
cutting 8,000 jobs and closing a factory near Paris.

“Pitting companies against consumers has taken on a new
dimension with this government,” said UFC-Que Choisir’s
Barreiro. “It means negotiating with companies, saying to them:
you cut fewer jobs and I’ll give you something in exchange.”

Mobile Phones

A spokeswoman in Montebourg’s office called UFC-Que
Choisir’s comments “archaic,” saying the idea isn’t to force
the French to buy domestic-made products. Rather, it is to
promote such products and hence create jobs, she said.

Deals with companies often come at a cost to consumers,
Barreiro said, adding that the government is perpetuating an
“erroneous” idea that the “interests of consumers don’t go
hand-in-hand with competition.”

Nowhere is this more evident than in the mobile-phone
market, where the entry of a fourth operator, Iliad SA’s Free,
in January has pulled down prices, once among Europe’s highest.

Iliad founder Xavier Niel said during a press conference on
Aug 31st that a study by a consumer-rights magazine showed the
average French household had gained 7 euros per month in
purchasing power since Free began operations.

Twitter Message

The telecommunications regulator Arcep in March said the
companies may eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs to adapt to
competition from Free.

Montebourg last week rushed to stem job cuts in the
industry by allowing the carriers to accelerate the deployment
of faster networks -- investment costs of which will likely be
passed on to consumers.

That marks an about-face for the minister, who not very
long ago -- before he was in government -- had cheered the
decline in consumer prices from the entry of Free.

On Jan. 10, when Free began operations, Montebourg posted a
message on Twitter, jeering at former President Nicolas Sarkozy,
saying, “Xavier Niel has done more with his unlimited mobile-calls package for French people’s purchasing power than Nicolas
Sarkozy in five years.”

‘Low-Cost Obsession’

In Le Parisien’s interview today, Montebourg sings a
different tune.

“The obsession with low cost means outsourcing and job
cuts,” he said. “Discount airfares ultimately end in 5,000
people at Air France losing their jobs.”

Consumer spending accounts for 56 percent of the $2.77
trillion French economy. While 68 percent of the French in a
survey by the Cedre, an association to promote local
entrepreneurs, said products made in France tend to be better
than comparable imports, 82 percent said they are more
expensive.

Goods manufactured in France are on average 15 to 25
percent more expensive than in countries such as China, Vincent
Gruau, head of Cedre, said in December.

With some products the margins are even higher, Le Parisien
showed today. A French-made pair of socks costs 6 euros compared
with 1.50 euros from Indonesia. Domestic pasta costs 1.55 euros
a kilogram, more than double the 71 cents for imports.

‘Bite Them’

Still, the industry minister is pushing consumers to buy
French in the hope it will create jobs in the country, denying
that local products are a luxury. He said he’ll contact
supermarkets to create an aisle dedicated to goods made in
France. The public sector won’t get off either. He plans to name
an ombudsman to review their procurements.

“The government is mistaken in terms of consumers and
competition, and that pushes them to take positions that aren’t
the best,” said Que-Choisir’s Barreiro. “They are making a
major strategic error in terms of their analysis that risks
coming back to bite them.”